Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken by Terrance Dicks

The Doctor and his current companion, a boy named Adric, are summoned to the planet of Traken. Traken’s Keeper, who is about to die, needs the Doctor’s help to root out an evil which has established itself on their usually peaceful planet. Once they arrive on Traken, the Doctor realizes that this is no mere grouchy-pants alien he’s dealing with — it’s a foe he’s met many times before.

My thoughts:

I’m not reading the books in this series in order, but honestly I don’t think it matters too much. Each Doctor Who episode/story generally does quite well as a stand-alone story. The previous Doctor Who novel I read was also by Terrance Dicks, and his writing was great in this novel, as in the previous one.

One of the things that I love about these books is that I can see the action taking place in my head. It’s just like a Doctor Who episode, full of dialogue, interesting characters and lots of action. This book features the fourth Doctor — floppy hat, long scarf and all. He is accompanied by Adric, a previous inhabitant of E-space, and meets young lady named Nyssa in this story. I know that the story is based on an actual TV episode, but sadly I didn’t grow up watching Doctor Who, so it has no nostalgic value to me.

Now, this particular story line is interesting. It introduces us to a society in which one individual takes on the task of “keeping” the rest of society safe. The Keeper feels all of the emotions that are not conducive to a peaceful society, as well as being a wise leader and maintainer of order. One of the Doctor’s greatest enemies decides to take advantage of this amazing power and is very nearly successful in enslaving an entire planet. I don’t want to give you all the details, but it was a rollicking good adventure.

I recommend Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken to Doctor Who fans everywhere. Read it so that you can be thorough in your obsession with all things Doctor Who. 😉